European Championhips 2018: IT'S A GOLD MEDAL

Bad qualification might always be a sign of good things to come with Russia and good things came. I watched the team final during my last two hours with the hotel wifi in Cyprus and there couldn't have been a happier ending to my vacation. A gold medal for Russia! And not only a gold medal, but a major team final where Russia hit 12 routines. When was the last time this happened? It's probably better to not check. France didn't exactly falter under the pressure, but their few bigger mistakes together with Russia's incredible hit streak made sure that Russia won by a landfall. The Netherlands was third after a fight with Great Britain. I know the field at Europeans this year is very weak after pretty much every country has had their fill with injuries, but it was an exciting final where everyone genuinely fought for their medals and I really enjoyed watching it.

European Championships 2018: A disappointing start

Yesterday was the first day of competition at the European Championships and Team Russia won the subdivision lottery, but neglected to take advantage of it. I thought that the leo was pretty good, but that's unfortunately it. The rest was not. And I'm not that upset, yet. Because even Queen Aliya herself knew that qualifications are for non-important losers and putting any effort into them is unnecessary and very un-Russian. So yeah, whatever. I wished for something better and will settle for this right now. But if they continue with this shit during the team final, I'll be mad. And France will be very happy.

The European Championships is here, but I'm not!

The teams are now in Glasgow ready to compete at the 2018 European Championships in just a few days. And I'm really excited, trust me. Both teams are actually pretty young, and it seems to be the direction we've been going since the start of this quadrennium. The 2012 quad that has been backing up the team since, well, before 2012 is really struggling to keep up and the young ones are finally given the opportunity for making a name for themselves and being a team. You know, an actual team, instead of a veteran and some young headcases who don't really have to well because the veterans will make sure that a medal is placed around a Russian neck. I'm in no way against the veterans doing gymnastics as long as they want to, but this feels exciting. And scary. It could be a disaster.

I'm still weirded out by Ira in Russian gear

V-Rod Announces the European Championships Team

We all know that Valentina Rodionenko has a habit of announcing a lot of teams in a short amount of time, and she's been surprisingly quiet about the European Championships team. I've been waiting for her daily calls to R-Sport, but it hasn't happened. So this team announcement from her could actually we slightly more reliable than usually, but who knows.

According to V-Rod, the Euros team was selected after recent control training and will be Angelina Melnikova, Angelina Simakova, Ulyana Perebinosova, Lilia Akhaimova and Irina Alexeeva. I don't know what to say, this is very surprising. The most surprising thing is, that Anastasia Ilyankova was left out. I can't come up with any other explanation except that she's injured. Because I was sure she was a lock. The other person left out from my predicted team is Viktoria Komova. Apparently she failed to prove herself after an unsuccessful Russian Cup by making mistakes on both bars and beam during control training and they just can't trust her on beam. I'm not that surprised about Vika's fate, but which one of these gymnasts can you trust on beam, Valentina, really???

Vika and Ilya's spots were taken by Ira and Ulya. Ira had a minor injury so she didn't compete at the Russian Cup, but she's apparently fine now. And I might be just fine with her going, who else could they pick if Vika and Ilya are out of the question. I don't think she's necessarily medal material, but she's fit for the team competition. Ulya however... What kind of dream training did she have? We're not trusting Vika, but I would trust Ulya even less. I actually thought she was injured, because she didn't compete at the Russian Cup, but no. She could be used on vault and bars, maybe floor, but she's even more inconsistent than Vika. I guess they're hoping that she hits that wild UB routine of hers for once for a surprise medal.

I'm still a bit weirded out by Ira's sudden return to Russia. I've seen her as basically an American for years now. And now she will be an official part of the Russian team. I just tried to picture Ira wearing a national team leo (like this one), but couldn't.

Freezing in Mallorca

The team is on their annual training vacation in Mallorca and unfortunately the weather as been very cold for this time of the year. Based on social media it looks like they have gotten a few days on the beach and pool, but the rest of the time has been spent shivering and training. And in case of Vika and Masha, all kinds of dangerous activities. I'll be happy if we get those two back unharmed. Queen Aliya stayed in Penza according to her individual training plan, but Lena made it to Mallorca and is training again, at least lightly.

Have fun, girls!

Russian Championships 2018: All Around Final

Russian Championships continued with the all around final yesterday and I luckily had the time to watch the competition live, but had to go to work straight after, so this post is a day late. And I'm spending the beginning of a the long and boring night shift writing this post. The Russians surprisingly continued to not suck and pretty much everyone in the first group had a decent competition. By decent I mean that not the kind of disaster we usually expect from Nationals and no one had a meltdown. Queen Aliya Mustafina proved that she was truly back by competing her second all around in to days. I need a montage of her gymnastics made to Sia's Greatest, because Aliya is obviously the greatest and I have no idea how she has managed to gain the stamina for this in just a few months. She unfortunately finished fourth by a tenth of a point because Russia suddenly has depth before the injury season really kicks in, but who cares. She's still undeniably the greatest.

Russian Championships 2018: The Queen Is Back

The Russian Championships began with the team competition today and I knew we weren't going to get the repeat disaster of last year, because the class is back. The one and only Aliya Mustafina made her return in her usual way, surprising everyone. No simple layouts, no timers, she had real skills and real routines, less than a year after giving birth. I don't know how, but I never know how when it comes to My Tsaritsa. Because there's no way she would return and not be The Champion again right away, the Moscow team won gold. My Queen is on the top of the podium again. The second team was Central, and third Moscow's second team. Because they aren't lucky enough with their athletes for just one team.

The official livestream doesn't start until tomorrow, so my recap of the day is based on instagram and periscope videos and results.

Jesolo 2018: Senior Team and AA Final

I already wrote post about Jesolo today, but here's another one, because the seniors competed today as well. The Russian senior team consisted of Angelina Melnikova, Ulyana Perebinosova, Anastasia Ilyankova and Eleonora Afanasyeva. Eleonora was a last minute replacement for Lilia Akhaimova. I get that they technically fill the same floor specialist position in the team, but this competition format (4-4-3) really favors all arounders, so I don't understand why they didn't pick Maria Kharenkova instead. Then again, she looked terrible in Stuttgart, maybe she needs some time to reload.

Before the competition even started, I had a bad feeling. I don't think we've ever had a team with a bigger chance of a complete meltdown on bars AND beam. On paper, the uneven bars rotation looks amazing. Ulya, Melka and Ilya all have Worlds event final level routines. It's just that they're all terribly inconsistent. Or Melka and Ulya are, Ilya is just inconsistent, not terribly so. On beam they're all total meltdown material. Ulya can be just plain terrible. And then we have Eleonora, the wild card. How will she handle this competition? She looked really lost during training. All the other girls were doing their normal warm-up in unison and she had no idea what she was supposed to do. I guess she hasn't been spending that much time at Round Lake.

Like with juniors, I wrote this post while I watched the competition to save some time, so mistakes and bad grammar (even more than usually) will follow.

Round Lake Update

Spring is here! It's still occasionally snowing where I live, but whatever. I hate spring so I don't know why I'm excited, but for some reason I'm just ready to leave winter behind for awhile at least.

There hasn't been much going on in the world of Russian gymnastics during the past few weeks, but the next ones should be very busy. A team of Ulyana Perebinosova, Eleonora Afanasyeva, Anastasia Ilyankova, Angelina Melnikova, Daria Belousova, Elena Gerasimova, Vladislava Urazova and Ksenia Klimenko is already in Italy for Trofeo Citta' di Jesolo and Nationals will be held right after they return. We also heard that Aliya Mustafina should compete at the Osijek World Cup at the end of May. All hail the Queen. Both Aliya and Valetina Rodionenko have agreed that she's motivated and in a competitive mindset.

The federation released some promotional training footage and interviews for Nationals, nothing terribly interesting.

The Russian Bitchface Is Strong with This One

I'll have a post about our most victorious Melka when I get off from work, but meanwhile, the Russian bitchface was having a great day at Doha. Ulyana Perebinosova is competing at the Doha World Cup and won silver on bars. It wasn't her best routine, it was messy and missing a connection, but it was still a hit routine and her coach Marina Ulyankina knew it. Look at her.

She's dancing in the judges' faces. Is that allowed? She's a judge herself, so she should know. This was hilarious in itself, but what I really loved, was Ulya's reaction. Look at her ending her routine with her usual indifferent salute and then hurrying off the podium ignoring her coach's antics. When Ulyankina caught up with her and slapped her playfully, she actually lashed out at her coach. Probably playfully as well, but still. She refused to smile and kept her bitchface. Imagine the diva commentary if this was a bigger competition.

This is honestly one of the most Russian things from this generation of Russian gymnasts since Angelina Simakova refused to partake a Mexican wave and I love it. Thank you Ulya, you made my day.

Reykjavik International Games 2018

Last week Russia showed up at the first international meet of the season, Reykjavik International Games in Iceland. I'm really jealous, I would have loved to go to Iceland, even though my relationship with Eyjafjallajökull is highly problematic. As last year, they sent one senior and one very tiny junior, Ulyana Perebinosova and Nelli Audi, respectively. Ulya is now a second year senior who just returned to competition after spending most of her first year as a senior injured. Nelli is a 2005-born sensation who has spent the past few years posting her incredible skill set to YouTube. They both won the all around and a bunch of other medals, but I wouldn't get too excited, the field wasn't exactly deep.

Baby Swan Graduates: Ulyana Perebinosova

Ulya is originally from Kuznetsk, but she trains in Moscow and is coached by Marina Ulyankina, also the coach/former coach of gymnasts like Maria Paseka, Seda Tutkhalyan and Alla Sosnitskaya. She represents the Central Federal Okrug, even though neither Moscow nor Kuznetsk is a part of it, but the Russian teams rarely follow any logic anyway. She made a steady rise through the junior ranks and by 2016, she was expected to be one of the team's top senior all arounders in 2017. So naturally she disappeared completely and her status now is unknown. Before her untimely disappearance, she won gold together with her team at the Junior European Championships, and also took individual silver on bars and bronze on floor. At the Russian Nationals in 2016, she won gold on vault, silver on all around and beam, and bronze on bars.

She has many attributes in common with other Ulyankina's gymnasts and like them, she's not the typical Russian Swan. She isn't nearly as messy as them and she usually has nice, clean lines, but she doesn't have the elegance or finesse of some of her teammates, and hasn't shown much character yet. She's an all arounder with fairly equal ability on 3 pieces. She's best on bars, very promising on floor with nice dance and high, clean tumbling, and one of the few Russians with a DTY on vault, but it's still very inconsistent. Her beam is...ummm...special. Think of junior Maria Paseka.

Baby Swan Graduates: Class of 2017

It's time for the usually sad and only semi-relevant post-Olympic year, but we still have 4 new brave youngsters, (hopefully) ready to try to defy the odds of surviving Russian gymnastics. They have already proved to be extremely resilient (or lucky) by making it into senior level, so let's hope that they have a few good (dare I say, maybe even a tiny bit successful) years left.

You're probably already familiar with them, but here are the former Baby Swans who graduated into senior ranks at the start of this year: Elena Eremina, Anastasia Ilyankova, Ulyana Perebinosova and Elizaveta Kochetkova.

Don't they all look young and innocent? Enjoy it while it lasts. They'll soon make you crazy in one way or another, probably either by being a talented headcase, injured headcase or someone who can actually hit but is always injured.

This post is going to be divided into separate parts in case I get overly excited and poetic. Part 1 will be up soon, and it's going to focus on Lena.

Round Lake Update

There was a new interview with Valentina Rodionenko, published today, and it actually had a tiny bit of real insight instead of her usual ramblings.

First she discusses their outstanding success at the Olympics (okay...) with the interviewer and how she accurately predicted their good results (okay...). Then she goes all soft and mushy thanking everyone on the team about their hard work. This is the most human she has been since bursting into tears when she heard that the team could actually compete in Rio after the threat of a blanket ban. She also mentions that 2017 is a chance for the gymnasts to show their individual capabilities, but the goal of 2018 is clear, qualification for Tokyo. They're building the team with that in mind.

But then it gets more interesting.

it's a different team now

The Russians are on their annual training/recovery vacation and this year they are back in Mallorca after trying out Italy last year. Unfortunately it looks like the Spanish snoops are vacationing too, because we haven't seen any training footage yet. I was going through the gymnasts' social media though, and this group picture really hit me hard:

From left: Daria Spiridonova, Lilia Akhaimova, Elena Eremina, Maria Kharenkova, Valeria Saifulina, Angelina Melnikova, Angelina Simakova, Viktoria Gorbatova, Anastasia Ilyankova, Ulyana Perebinosova, Seda Tutkhalyan

This bunch of babies is the team. This. I knew Aliya, Masha, Afan and Vika are all taking a well-earned break/slow decent into retirement, but this team picture made me really see the situation as it is. Masha K. and Spiridoz are now the team leaders, their most experienced and accomplished gymnasts. Didn't they just turn senior? Seda and Melka are right behind with some major international experience and all around capability. Even they are "veterans" of the last quad come next year, even though we just saw them grow up. Lilia is technically the oldest gymnast of this bunch, but because she hasn't ever been on the main team, her face in the team picture seems even newer than Melka's.

And if you thought like me at first that the rest this picture is filled with tiny juniors, no, it's not. This group (save for Lera, Vika and Sima) is THE SENIOR TEAM. It just feels so weird. The post-Olympic "where is everybody?" slump has officially begun for me. Don't get me wrong, I love all of these gymnasts and the super young "veterans" have a very special place in my heart, plus I'm really excited that Nastia, Lena and Ulya will join the senior team, but I need to adjust to the new makeup and look of the Russian nuclear team...

Looks like Kapi and Shelgie stayed home, I don't think either one of them is retiring though. And Polina might continue her B-team career. Alla is probably a lost cause by now. 

I needed some cheering up after my gloomy realizations because of this picture, and Seda was up for the job. Just look at her in Mallorca, posing with Miley Cyrus :) Who knew they were friends.

-----
I'm working on a series of posts dedicated to my favorite routines from this quad, probably with a side of some other good things that happened, like leotards, pictures, memorable moments and stuff. We'll see what I come up with.

Euros 2016: Congrats Nastia! but i'm tired

The competition is officially over and I'm actually happy, because I'm just so tired. Spending day after day being overly emotionally invested to a bunch of headcases and My Tsaritsa Aliya just takes its toll. So I apologize if I'm not doing too good of a job with the recap of the junior event finals.

Euros 2016: Golden Baby Swans!

The Russian junior team won team gold ahead of GB and Romania with a huge 4 point lead. I'm so proud! Just look at the happiness and let it fill you, because tomorrow might not go as well.

My baby swans started on their best apparatus, uneven bars, with hit routines.

The Baby Swans for European Championships

Firstly, I don't know how I feel about the scheduling of the junior competition of the European Championships (it's every two years, even-numbered years). On one hand, I like seeing the juniors during an Olympic year because the quadrennium is ending and it gives a glimpse of what is to come during the next one. But on the other hand, the upcoming Olympics takes all the attention away from the juniors because we are so focused on the seniors who are either trying out their upgrades for the Olympics, or battling it out for the last few spots on the teams.

Having juniors at the Euros during odd years would also make sense, because it would give the girls who become seniors during the Olympic year (e.g. Grishy and Melka) a chance to perform on such a big setting before being thrown into the pressures of the senior level right before the Olympics. Most of the Olympic year seniors do get to go to junior Euros, but I think that going two years before becoming senior is entirely different than one year, it makes it less real to me. If that makes any sense. Probably not. Why don't we just have the junior competition every year to settle this out? And while we're at it, the whole AA vs. team situation doesn't make any sense when they still have individual event finals every year. Just seems lazy to me. I remember that there was a good explanation for this weird arrangement, but I don't remember it. Please enlighten me if you know it.


And now I've written half a page before even mentioning anything about the team, it's:

• Anastasia Ilyankova AA (2001) 
• Ulyana Perebinosova AA (2001)
• Elena Eremina AA (2001)
• Varvara Zubova BB/FX (2002)
• Angelina Simakova VT/UB (2002)

This team will definitely try to defend their team gold and fight for top spots in the AA and UB. They should be able to nab some other medals too.

My favorite out of this bunch is Lena. She's very pretty and promising, but unfortunately didn't do her best at nationals. And poor Simakova... She is actually one of Russia's most promising all arounders, but performed pretty underwhelmingly at nationals and wasn't picked for AA. This also means that she won't get to perform on floor, her best apparatus and best chance at finals. Ksenia Klimenko, who basically outshined everyone on this team during nationals, will have to wait for 2018 since she's still too young for Euros. And another great junior who missed the team is Aleksandra Schekoldina. She has the same strengths as ZubZub (BB/FX), but less experience.

Baby Russians at Gymnix and my shower thoughts (nothing creepy I swear)

So I was going to write about the Russian babies at Gymnix sooner and I failed. Surprise. I got caught up playing RollerCoaster Tycoon 3. And I actually went to school yesterday but my failure was mostly caused by gaming as usual.

So Gymnix? It didn't go so well, but it wasn't a disaster either. The Americans dominated as I suspected, but my little swans managed to grab a few medals, team silver most importantly. The Canadians won bronze in front of a home audience.

(Is it just me or do the Russians look a bit cranky there? Practicing that Russian bitchface I'm sure. Can't move to senior level without it. But I'd be cranky too if I was wearing a leo with weird boob tentacles.)

The Americans also swept the all around podium even with their best gymnast, Jordan Chiles, having an incredibly rough day and finishing way down the standings. Anastasia Ilyankova scored highest out of the Russians, but came in 4th after a low score on uneven bars, her best event. Event finals ended with gold for Nastia on uneven bars, and silver for Varvara Zubova on beam (yay!).

This week in Russian gymnastics

I've had a busy week filled with working on my final thesis and procrastinating. Mostly procrastinating, because whenever I should be doing something important I remember that I have Cities: Skylines. I start playing and notice that the city I built and played for hours and hours has been broken because of a new update. I use mods on plenty of games, but that shitty game is the only one that always, ALWAYS breaks. And then I have to start all over again. It's so frustrating. What was I talking about again?

Oh right, gymnastics. I was trying to explain why I didn't post anything about gymnastics this week. But nothing too important really happened, just a lot of little things so I'm just going to scramble together all the news here in one post. We have lots of great instagram action from Round Lake, Shelgie being Shelgie and Valentina not knowing what's going on. So just the usual.

Let's start with the most important: Rio. Rio Test Event to be precise. Actually, there's no test event for the Russians, because they are not going.